Factors Influencing Homelessness

Youth homelessness in Canada is not a new phenomenal, it has become more and more severe over the past 20 years. “One third of homeless individuals on the streets are under the age of 25”(Cino, Rose). It is a significant social justice issue in Canada. Within our community people are increasingly aware of the sight of youth sleeping in parks, asking for money and sitting on sidewalks. Youth homelessness is caused by tragic life occurrences such as abuse, illness or unemployment, while many falsely assume homelessness is a choice.

"Homelessness." The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. Eds. W. Edward Craighead and Charles B. Nemeroff. Hoboken: Wiley, 2004. Credo Reference. Web. 26 Oct 2015. This article talks about homelessness. The homeless come from single men, single women, adolescents, and families with children. Causing of homelessness are included poverty, unemployment, or other economic conditions; but the most important causes of homelessness are extreme poverty so that they could not afford a house. There are around 750,000 Americans are homeless every night and close to 2 million are homeless in a year. The effects of homelessness

Exploring the relationship between homelessness and health shows different types of connections. Some health problems are experienced before an individual becomes homeless and may later contribute to the difficulty in finding appropriate housing whereas other health issues are a consequence of homelessness. It also causes difficulties in finding appropriate treatment for illnesses. (Homelessness, health, and human needs, 1988) Homeless individuals are

Homelessness can be a detrimental experience as a result of being exposed to constant stress and unpredictable weather. It may lead to families and individuals having to find a temporary refuge in an unsafe environment, or obtain food from resources that can be harmful. Individuals and families caught in these predicaments frequently are ineptitude in areas of housing stability, managing money skills, coping skills, and support systems which would be significant in helping them modify hardships. As a result, a vast proportion of homeless families, individuals, and children have been exposed to a variety of traumatic occurrences such as childhood abuse, domestic violence, combat-related trauma, sexual assault, and the like.

In the United States homelessness has been a substantial problem for decades. The reason for homelessness is greatly debated especially

The experience of homelessness inhibits the physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and behavioral development of children. Difficulties faced by homeless children include low self-esteem, lack of sleep and nutrition and feelings of shame and embarrassment. These children are exposed to the harsher realities of life. The stressors of being homeless can lead to many homeless children feeling depressed, causing detrimental health effects (Vostanis and Cumella, 1999). In general, homeless children consistently exhibit more health problems than housed poor children. Environmental factors contribute to homeless children’s poor health and they are at high risk for infectious disease. Homeless children are at greater risk for asthma and lead poisoning, often with more severe symptoms than housed children. Poor nutrition also contributes to homeless children’s poor health, causing increased rates of stunted growth and anemia. Despite these widespread health problems, homeless children generally lack access to consistent health care, and this lack of care can increase severity of illness. Homelessness also exposes infants to environmental factors that can endanger their health. Homeless children begin to demonstrate significant developmental delays after 18 months of age, which are believed to influence later behavioral and emotional problems. A quarter or more of homeless children have witnessed violence, and more than half have problems with anxiety and depression. Family homelessness may result in children’s separation from their parents—either because children are formally placed in foster care, or because parents leave children in the care of relatives and friends (Child Trends Data Bank, 2015). Homeless children worry about where they will sleep on a given night, and if they have a place to sleep, they are afraid of losing it. Older children worry about being separated from

Homelessness is one the most ignored problems in the United States with citizen and politician. Homeless people are walked by and ignored. Nobody ever thinks that they will be homeless. Due to the economy, people live paycheck to paycheck making house payments very difficult. Most people will want to believe most homeless people are drug addicts or alcoholics, but most people will be surprise to know that it is no all true. Veterans with PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) have a high risk of becoming homeless. Homelessness is cause by drug and alcohol dependencies, the economy and veterans who suffers from PTSD or other forms of mental illness.

Regardless of what either side of the issue sees the solutions to homelessness to be, it is an established fact that individuals who are homeless are at increased risk for substance abuse, mental illness, health problems, and are often the victims of

One social concept that heavily affects the homeless population is that of dehumanization. Dehumanization is the deprivation of human rights from a person or group with the intention of undermining the individual being represented by a specific situation. In the case of the homeless population, they are often segregated from society and abused in various forms. The segregation of homeless people from society is often given two arguments as to why they are a “class apart”. These two arguments are that homeless people have done or are doing things that society sees as morally unacceptable and that homeless people have received help from their social community and have not made efforts to make connections. These assumptions often give people a negative outlook on the homeless people, to which many people treat them as second class citizens. The homeless are also abused physically and verbally, by people who assume that their asking of assistance is an affront to the person at hand. This has created a bad stigma against the homeless population, who are often feared and even seen as and treated like

Many researchers contribute homelessness to structural factors but advocates of human rights debunk this and highlights that the main reason for homelessness is due to mostly individual

Young Australians being homeless in 2009 were 62% females who were concerned about homeless and leaving home at the age between 13 to 17 years old 73%. The young people who were homeless and had other concerns in the age between 18 to 25 years was 65% of them likely to be 92% female (show in figure 1.1). (Website 3) The health issues with in young homeless individuals include Mental illness and Mental disorders. Evidence shows that depression, anxiety and post- traumatic stress disorders are experienced by individuals young homeless Australians.75% people with Mental illness first exhibit symptoms before the age of 25(brochure) . It can effect a person’s psychological, physical and emotional and spiritual wellbeing. (1st website) People that have mental illness are the people that tend to struggle to function is most aspects in their life. This may include securing and maintaining a home or a job may be extremely difficult to do (1st website). As an individuals it might happen once and make a full recovery afterwards. For others however, it may take a longer time to recover as their mental illness as it may have more sever impacts on the quality of

The issue of contemporary homelessness has took a huge shift from the common perception of homeless people. I am witnessing a shift from the image of ‘homelessness’ being a physically dirty, pan handling, poor, uneducated individual who does not have a physical home for shelter. Initially, I failed to recognize that ‘homelessness’ can be a temporary state on can live in. Not all homeless people are homeless by “choice”, sometimes people are homeless by “force”. Events such as natural disasters or even death of a parent/spouse are uncontrolled

The aim of this report was to investigate what disadvantages the homeless face in Australia, the steps that are taken by the government and other support groups to alleviate or eliminate these disadvantages and what still needs to be done in order to solve the homelessness epidemic in Australia.

Homelessness is affecting many people today, and on the other hand it's considered as a trauma too. It can make people commit suicide thinking that they are alone in this world, people that don't have a family, nobody to turn to in this world, and that very dangerous and most of in children. This are the things that people face when they are homeless: puberty, transportation issues, limited social support, limited education, and emotional factors. There are many resources for people that are homeless.